Etymology
Names of places and factions in the Fading Suns setting are replete with references and phrases in languages other than English. Knowing these references can provide insight into the cultural origins of the faction or place, as well as the authors' creative processes. Out-Of-Character *Absolution -- Forgiveness via sacrament. *Abydos -- Greek name for ancient Egyptian city of Abdju, site of numerous ancient temples and royal necropolis. *Aeon -- Aeon, "eternity" in Greek. *Al Fashir -- Town in Darfur, a historical caravan post. *al-Malik -- Arabic for "the (true) king." *Amalthea -- Foster-mother of Zeus in Greek mythology, later a moon of Jupiter. *Anunnaki -- After the collective term for the gods in Sumerian/Babylonian/Akkadian belief, epsecially the lesser gods/gods not otherwise named. Associated particularly with gods of the earth and underworld (a contrastive term, igigi, refers to celestial gods), the term means "those of royal descent" or something like that. Also understood as the children of the god Anu and his sister/goddess Ki. *Apshai -- Apshai was the Ancient Egyptian god of insects. The Temple of Apshai was a popular early dungeon crawl game. *Aragon -- A large, historied province in Spain. *Arimaspia -- After the Arimaspi, a legendary people of Scythia, noted for struggling with griffons. *Artemis -- Greek Goddess patron of girls, archery, hunting, moon. *Aspiration -- An ideal or goal. *Avestan, Avesti -- From "Avesta," the sacred texts of Zoroastrianism in which prayer is usually conducted in the presence of fire. *Aylon -- After Helene Aylon, Green/Feminist/Jewish innovative mixed media artist from New York. *Bannockburn -- Burn = "stream" in scots, bannock being the name of a stream in central Scotland, merging into the river Stirling near the site of the Battle of Bannockburn, where the first decisive victory in the First War for Scottish independence was won. *Byzantium Secundus -- After Byzantium (capital of Roman Empire after Rome.) *Cadavus -- From cadaver (dead body), with nominative Latin -us ending. *Cadiz -- city-port in south-western Spain, particularly ancient settlement, name derives from the Phonecian name for the settlement, "Gadir," a wall or compound. (Reference to Rampart?) *Chernobog -- "Black god" in slavic, ambigious slavic deity. *Collier's Landing -- Literally a coal-miner's (water) transport hub. *Criticorum -- Genetive plural of "critic" in Latin-- "Belonging to the critics." *Daishan -- Island county in China. *Decados -- Possibly from "decadent" with Greek ending. *Delphi -- After spot on Mount Parnassus in ancient Greece, word derived from a word for "womb," dedicated to Apollo, where there was a popular oracle. *Demoley -- After Jaques De Molay, the last leader of the Templars. *Egg -- Zygote of an oviparous animal. *Epiphany -- A revelation. *Etyri -- From Eryri, highest mountain in Wales, meaning in Welsh either 'highlands,' or from the plural of eagle ("eryr.") *Eskatonic -- From eschatology, the understanding of the end of the world (see: apocalypse, armageddon, ragnarok). *Fingisvold -- Possibly from Norweigan "Finsk gis til vold," meaning "Finnish are given to violence." *Frost -- Solid-state water in a thin static layer. *Gannok -- After Gannock, a fortified manor house in county Bedfordshire, England. Possibly also for similarity to place name "Bannock" (see Bannockburn, which is where the Gannok are from.) *Gizeh -- City by the same name, largest city in Egypt. *Grail -- Graduated platter made famous as a holy cup and object of quest in Arthurian literataure. *Gwynneth -- Gwyneth, a common given name from Welsh, meaning "happiness." *Hargard -- Norweigan for "the farm." *Hawkwood -- Presumably named after the 14th Century English mercenary and adventurer Sir John Hawkwood. *Hazat -- Unknown, possibly name or word in Arabic, possible variant of Hazrat, after notable sufi Hazrat Inayat Khan. *Heaven's Ridge -- Presumably a mountain range in heaven. *Hesychast -- After hesychasm, an eastern orthodox practice of outer stillness and inner prayer, often compared with meditation. *Hira -- A cave near Mecca where Mohammed recieved his first revelations. *Hironem -- possibly after Hieronymus Bosch, early painter from Netherlands, used fantastic imagery on moral and religious themes. *Icon -- A religious work of art. *Irem -- A legendary or lost city on the Arabian peninsula, the "city of pillars." *Istakhr -- After Estakhr, a key city of Achaemenid Persia. *Iver -- A parish in Buckinghamshire, England. *Keddah -- After Keda, Malaysian Islamic kingdom. *Kish -- Place name in ancient Sumer, also the name of father of the first Israelite king Saul. *Kordeth -- Possibly obfuscation of "core death." Possibly norweigan "order" + english verb suffix "eth." *Kun Lun -- Tibetan mountain range. *Leagueheim -- Germanic "league home" *Khayyam -- After Omar Khayyam, a persian philosopher, poet, mathematician and scientist. *Kurgan -- a prehistoric bronze age people associated with a tumulus, or mound, of the same name. Also, a common place name in Russia. *Lamorak -- A hot-tempered knight in Arthurian literature, son of King Pellinore and brother to sir Percival, involved in family feud after killing King Lot. *Leminkainen -- After Finnish shamantic folk hero Lemminkäinen (torn apart, resurrected, reminiscent of Osiris.) *Li Halan -- Possibly the Le Haillan commune in Bordeaux, France. *Madoc -- After Welsh folk hero Madoc, who flees internecine violence to North America, arriving ~300 years before Christopher Columbus. *Malignatus -- From malignant, with nominative Latin -us ending. *Manitou -- Algonquin word meaning spirit or energy. * Mahayana -- From the Mahayana branch of Buddhism, meaning "the Great Vehicle," referring to the efforts toward salvation of all sentient beings, rather than of the self alone. Contrastive with Thervada, the "Way of the elders." * Mazdak -- After an ancient Persian philosopher and religious activist (a kind of reform Zoroastrianism) who advocated communal property. *Midian -- N.W. portion of the Arabian peninsula, in Biblical accounts, and the ostensibly polytheistic people who lived there, including Moses' wife and father-in-law. *Novgorod -- Russian for "new city," a historically important city between Moscow and St. Petersburg *Nowhere -- Lacking location. *Obun -- Word in Japanese may have something to do with a type of sushi? *Pandemonium -- Capital of Hell in Milton's Paradise Lost. Pan = "all" "demonium" = of demons. *Pentateuch -- After the Pentateuch, a name for the Torah/first five books of the old testament, which are also known as "the five books of Moses." *Pyre -- A built up fire, particularly funerary fires. *Rampart -- A defensive wall. *Raven -- A corvid. *Ravenna -- Island City in northern Italy, once seat of the Byzantine governor of Italy, familiar to Oscar Wilde and Lord Byron. *Rimpoche -- A Tibetan honorific, "the precious one," usually referring to a Buddhist teacher. *Rukh -- A giant mythological bird, aka a Roc. *Sathra -- After the greek Satrae, a people closely associated with the ecstacy-related mystery-cult god Dionysis and his oracle, who dwelt on the highest mountaintops. *Severus -- Roman dynastic name, ruled Roman Empire 193-235, also possibly for resonance with words like "severe" and "sever." *Shaprut -- After Ibn Shaprut, Spanish Jewish philosopher, physician, and polemicist, debated original sin in public with the future Pope in 1375, in Pamplona Spain. *Skey-- After the "Sceadugenga," norse undead shapeshifting twilight-dwelling animals evident in Beowulf. (The skey represent themselves as those at war with a shadowlike presence.) *Sky Tear -- The lacrimal residue of the upper limits of space, from a terrestrial perspective. *Stigmata -- Plural of stigma, Greek for branding marks. Usually refers to marks appearing on the body resembling the injuries of Jesus when crucified, and by extrapolation, any spontaneous injuries taken as a religious sign. *Sutek-- Egyptian God of desert and chaos. *Tethys -- Titaness in Greek mythology, later a moon of Saturn. *Tsuma -- A Japanese island village. *Ustar -- Possibly after acronym "Uniform Standard Tape Archive," a file format. *Velismil -- Possibly a riddle/joke revealing that Obun names are derived from taking hybrids of Norweigan and Turkish languages. "Vel" = "well" in Norweigan, and "ismi" is "name" in turkish, "Well named." *Vera Cruz -- "True cross" in Spanish, name of several places including Mexican seaport beseiged in Mexican-U.S. war of 1846-8. *Vril-ya -- After early (1871) science fiction "vril" an energy being associated with a subterranean master race, considered to be real my some theosophists. *Vuldrok -- Vul = dutch "fill" drak = danish "drank," possibly some quasi-N.W. Germanic "full of drink." *Wolf's Lament -- a song or poem expressing the grief of canis lupus. *Yathrib -- Original name of Medina. In-Character * Ukar -- Means "blood oath" in Ukari. *Obun -- Rendered as "slave" in Ukari. *Vuldrok -- Derived from "Wolf-Dragon." OOC Referents By Origin *In English: Aspiration, Cadavus, Collier's Landing, Egg, Frost, Hawkwood, Rampart, Raven, Nowhere, Sky Tear, Wolf's Lament, Iver *Arthurian: Grail, Lamorak * Welsh: Bannockburn, Etyri, Gannok, Gwynneth, Madoc *Misc English/Religious: Absolution, Heaven's Ridge, Icon, Pyre *Christian Church/Greek: Eskatonic, Hesychast, Stigmata, Epiphany *Greek Mythology: Aeon, Amalthea , Arimaspia, Artemis, Delphi, Tethys, Sathra *Germanic/Norse/Slavic/Russian: Leagueheim, Leminkainen, Fingisvold, Hargard, Vuldrok, Chernobog, Novgorod, Kurgan, Skey (Sceadugenga) *French: Li Halan *French/Christian Church: Demoley *Spain/Spanish: Aragon, Cadiz, Vera Cruz *Latin/Roman: Criticorum, Severus *Byzantine/Latin: Byzantium Secundus, Ravenna *Sumer/Babylon: Anunnaki *Egyptian: Abydos, Gizeh, Sutek *Hebrew/Biblical: Kish , Midian, Pentateuch, Shaprut *Arabic/Islam: Al Fashir, al-Malik, Hazat, Hira, Irem, Yathrib *Persian: Avestan, Istakhr, Khayyam, Mazdak, Rukh *Malaysian/Islamic: Keddah *Buddhist/Tibetan: Mahayana, Rimpoche *Tibetan/Chinese: Kun Lun *Chinese: Daishan *Japanese: Tsuma, Obun *Fiction: Apshai, Vril-ya Category:Game Play